augusti 16, 2008

We buy to broadcast our identities

Bokanmälan: Bying in: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are, R Walker, Randome House

/…/ With a compelling blend of cultural anthropology and business journalism, he makes us fess up about our dependence on brand name products and explains our nearly irresistible urge to use what we buy to broadcast our identities. Marketers spend millions, Walkers says, to attaché a story to every object they sell. “If a product is successfully tied to an idea, branding persuades people – whether they admit it to pollsters or even fully understand it themselves – to consume the idea by consuming the product”, he writes. “A potent brand becomes a form of identity in shorthand.”